No strategic value justified them. They were spontaneous outgrowths of
venom, nursed during the winter deadlock and now grown to full size and
destructive power.
The rumor of a gas that seared and killed came to the little house as
early as February. In March there came the first victims, poor writhing
creatures, deprived of the boon of air, their seared lungs collapsed
and agonized, their faces drawn into masks of suffering. Some of them
died in the little house, and even after death their faces held the
imprint of horror.
To Sara Lee, burying her own anxiety under the cloak of service, there
came new and terrible thoughts. This was not war. The Germans had sent
their clouds of poisoned gas across the inundation, but had made no
attempt to follow. This was killing, for the lust of killing; suffering,
for the joy of inflicting pain.
And a day or so later she heard of The Hague Convention. She had not
known of it before. Now she learned of that gentlemen's agreement among
nations, and that it said: "The use of poison or of poisoned weapons is
forbidden." She pondered that carefully, trying to think dispassionately.
Now and then she received a copy of a home newspaper, and she saw that
the use of poison gases was being denied by Germans in America and set
down to rumor and hysteria.
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